


There are better ways to break up with someone

by OHSHC_Trash_14



Category: Free!
Genre: End of a Relationship, Gen, Kissing, M/M, school setting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-07
Updated: 2019-08-13
Packaged: 2020-02-27 22:45:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,790
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18748588
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OHSHC_Trash_14/pseuds/OHSHC_Trash_14
Summary: Some people are lucky, and find who they want to be with early on. Others don't. High school isn't a great time for relationships.





	1. Day One

**Author's Note:**

> This takes place after the vast majority of the long angsty story that I've been mentioning. This is something I started writing a while ago and I felt it would be a good way to give anyone that's interested in reading the longer story an introduction to some of the characters involved. I'll say that there are some more OCs included in that story than I cover in this one, but if people like this I may do another little story for the others.   
> Let me know what you think, I hope you all enjoy!

Terou, Katsou, and Nao were walking out the same way after their practice. In the back corner of the performing arts wing - the makeout spot - they saw a very muscular guy who was almost taller than Katsou, holding who they thought was a tall girl against the wall and kissing “her.”  
“Ooh, he’s hot.” Terou near-instantly remarked. “Swimming friend of yours?”   
“He does look familiar, but he’s not on the swim team. One of the sports teams, definitely.”  
“Too bad he’s probably straight.” Terou joked.  
Katsou was about to chide his boyfriend for that one when something clicked in all three of their heads. They didn’t recognize this guy at all, or the person he was holding. There were better and more hidden places in the school to be making out, so what in the world were they doing back here.  
Katsou turned back to look at the couple, still passionately making out. “The one he’s holding looks pretty familiar…”  
Nao nodded, but unfortunately for all five of them in the hall at that moment, Terou’s brain did not work the same way.  
“KAZU WHAT THE FUCK?” He shouted.  
The tall muscular man was pushed back from the wall by the boy he was holding, who screamed “shit, run!” and disappeared around a corner.  
“Nice one, babe,” Katsou sighed.  
Before they could start another one of their can-you-really-call-this-an-argument conversations, Nao shared a thought. “Which one of us is going to tell Sho about this?” 

As the small group continued to walk out of school, Nao had a question for his friends.  
“How long have they been together anyway?”  
“Oh, this is funny. Back in middle school when we all became friends, the crushes were painfully obvious. Me and Katsou got together pretty quickly, but those two took longer,” Terou explained.  
“I got an actual headache watching them in second year. It was terrible.”   
“They would stare at each other and look away, that crap. Eventually, I made them realize they needed to start dating.”   
“You say that like it was smooth. He tracked them both down during passing time, said they obviously have crushes on each other, and then left them in that corner behind the lunch room.”   
“I’m sorry, where?” Nao asked. He didn’t know what most of what they’d said meant.   
“Oh yeah, you went to the public school,” Katsou said. “It was this useless section of hallway where kids would go to hide from teachers.”   
“No teachers, no cameras, no other students. Third years did all kinds of weird shit,” Terou laughed a bit, “Our school was awful.”  
“Why would you bring them there?”  
“Kazu told me that they started going there to make out so I think I made the right choice. Don’t know why they’d go somewhere so dingy though.”  
“This happened at a private school?”  
Katsou smiled slightly. “It wasn’t so bad, really. It just seemed that all the staff had stopped caring about what happened outside the classrooms.”  
Nao sighed. “Your old school sounds terrible. I need to go find Natsuya before he starts calling me and freaking out, could you two handle this situation for a little while?”   
“Sure thing,” Terou responded. “What do you think we should do?”   
“Well you yelled and Kazu bolted, so talking to him probably won’t work. Maybe one of you could text him and ask if he has an explanation for what we saw?”   
“That’s a good idea,” Katsou said. “We shouldn’t tell Sho about this until we get that part sorted out. Plus he’s sick, I don’t want to give him something else to worry about.” 

Nao was able to find Natsuya pretty quickly, as he was standing outside of the school and staring off into space while most people that were still around were moving in one of a few directions.  
“Great, you’re here. Ikuya’s bugging me about driving him home so we should get going.”   
“Ok. On the way there I have to tell you about something that happened today.”   
Natsuya was a little worried by that statement. “Everything alright?”   
“It’s just some stuff in the friend group. I think they can sort it out.”


	2. Day Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sometimes things just go a lot better than you expect them to.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This may get a fourth chapter, I'm not exactly sure yet.

“There’s no way that Kazu will talk to us about this after the incident,” Katsou paused to shoot Terou a sarcastic glare, “from yesterday.”   
“Ok, this is not my fault.”   
“It’s not. But you have to admit that part was.”  
Terou groaned. “Fine. You’re right, as always.”   
Nao decided this would be a good point to cut into the conversation. “Natsuya said that Kazu was in class today, but didn’t talk to him at all.”   
“We should probably tell Sho about this relatively soon,” Katsou suggested. “Kazu didn’t talk to us today, he probably won’t talk to us for the rest of the week.”  
They eventually came to the conclusion that telling Sho was the best idea, even if it meant making him worry.

At the end of the school day, they went over to Sho’s house. Nao told Natsuya that it wasn’t something he needed to worry about, and Nao would let him know how it all turned out.  
“This is really going to affect him, so watch what you say,” Katsou told Terou. “Let Nao and I explain, alright?”  
“I just freaked out yesterday, I’ll be fine.”   
“Yeah babe, sorry if I don’t trust that. Let’s see how he reacts to us telling him before you chime in.”   
“Are you going to ring the bell or do I have to do it?” Nao asked.   
“You should,” Katsou told him. “His parents like you more than they like us.”

“Sorry I didn’t tell my parents. I thought you meant we were going to talk about it when I was back at school.”  
“That’s what we had planned before, but we agreed that it was better you knew as soon as possible,” Katsou said.  
“Ok, what’s going on? This seems really weird.”   
The other three looked at each other, rather, Terou and Katsou looked at Nao. Neither of them wanted to say it.   
Nao sighed quietly. “Yesterday when we were leaving school, we saw Kazu with someone that we didn’t recognize. They were kissing and Terou yelled, so we only know what we saw.”  
“Well, at least I know I was right,” Sho said after a few painfully silent moments.  
“You knew?” Terou asked him.  
“Not really, but I thought he might break up with me soon. I expected him to handle it better, though.”   
“It has been strange between the two of you,” Katsou commented.   
“We tried, I guess. But if he tries to win me back after that I’m gonna kill him.”   
They discussed how this change in the friend group would affect the times they typically all saw each other, and it wasn’t anything that was too hard to fix.  
Sho had one question for his friends before they left. “Do you know if my class got a bunch of homework in the days I’ve been gone?”   
“We haven’t gotten much, so I don’t think so,” Terou said. “Nao, aren’t you in that class?”   
“I’m in the college prep class this year, remember?”   
“How do you never remember this stuff?” Sho asked.   
“I dunno, we don’t complain about our classes like a lot of people do,” Terou said.  
“Oh so we’re ignoring how Natsuya moped for an entire week when he found out that he’s not in the same class as Nao anymore,” Katsou joked.  
“I wish I could forget that,” Nao said. “He said he thought he could do ok in that class, but then I told him how long it takes me to do the homework and he stopped.”


	3. Day Three

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sho comes back to school, and Kazu talks to someone about what happened.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here it is, I finally finished this! It ended a little differently than I'd originally planned, but I think this ending is best for them.

Sho was still out sick, and Kazu was still avoiding them, but the others were eating lunch together.   
“Well it doesn’t look like he plans on talking to us any time soon,” Natsuya said.  
“What makes you say that?” Katsou asked.   
“Saw him talking to somebody before class started. She didn’t say much but they seem to get along, so I’m guessing she’s a friend of yours I haven’t met or something.”  
“Oh, blonde girl, hair put back with a green tie, about average height, probably had a book with her, right?” Terou asked.   
“Yeah, that’s her,” Natsuya responded. He was a bit surprised by how accurate the description was.   
“That’s Narumi, we’ve known her a while.”  
“I can talk to her at the end of the day,” Katsou added. “Kazu probably didn’t tell her what happened, but she’s smart enough to notice that there's something going on with him.”   
“The bell is going to ring in a few minutes, we should start heading back,” Nao pointed out. 

Sho had decided to come back for the second half of the day since he was feeling better. He was in the same class as Kazu, but they didn’t sit near each other, so he expected things to be alright.   
Class was uneventful as usual, and Sho hadn’t missed anything that would be hard to catch up on. 

“Hey, can we talk a minute?” Kazu asked.   
It was the end of the day and everyone was going off in different directions, so Sho didn’t have a very good excuse to say no. Plus, he sounded sincere.   
“Not in front of everyone.”   
“Ok. Meet me under the big tree in ten minutes?”   
Sho nodded, and they parted ways to get their belongings.

“I’m glad you’re feeling better.”   
“It was smart of you, doing that while I was gone.”  
“What?”  
“You said you wanted to talk, so you better not lie to me. They saw it and you never made an effort to explain yourself, so it must’ve been what it looked like.”  
“I didn’t want us to end like this.”   
“There’s not an us anymore. Just try to avoid me until the end of the school year, and then we can go on happily being nine hours away from each other.”   
“Sho, what are you talking about?”  
“I got accepted into that medical program in Tokyo. I’ll be there, and you’ll be here. That should work, don’t you agree?”   
Kazu leaned against the tree. “I’m going to miss talking to you.”   
“I’ve heard enough from you. There’s nothing between us anymore, so you’re responsible for your own mistakes from now on.”

Sho left to catch up with his friends. He felt bad about some of the things he’d said, but he knew that apologizing would make it worse. He didn’t have to spend every moment worrying about Kazu instead of himself, and it would make both their lives better in the long run.   
When he got to them, Narumi was there as well. She’d been informed about what happened and agreed that Sho made the right choice.


End file.
